Toxic Waste

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TOXIC WASTE - PAGE 4

A federal judge shocked government officials Friday by ordering a hazardous waste incinerator in Jacksonville, Ark., to stop burning wastes containing toxic dioxin until they can prove the burner destroys virtually all the poison as required by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations. "We could have a burn in which dioxin was literally pouring out of the stack undestroyed," said Judge Stephen Reasoner in Little Rock, Ark., in what could be a landmark case deciding how toxic waste incinerators should operate in the U.S. The nation has 18 commercial hazardous waste incinerators, as well as 260 other kinds of hazardous waste burners.

What is art? Art is Leonardo Di Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa," which hangs in the Louvre in Paris. It's also the wafer-shaped mass of crushed cans that sits on the floor in Chicago's new Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). Art can't be right or wrong, like the answer to a math problem. You either like something and call it art or you don't. Of course, many people- especially art critics- must call a particular artist's work art before it ends up in a museum. For example, most of us probably couldn't get away with stacking white paper on a black background and calling it art. But Cuban artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres can because his work is well-respected in the world of modern art. His paper pile is at the MCA. Modern art doesn't follow traditional ideas of what the world looks like.

The chairman of the Illinois Senate's Environment Committee plans to introduce a bill to eliminate an exemption in Illinois law allowing companies to dump toxic waste literally in their own back yards without meaningful regulation. The Tribune reported in December that under an exemption in the state law, Illinois firms can dump toxic materials in landfills and lagoons on their own property largely unregulated by the state Environmental Protection Agency. EPA officials are highly critical of that exemption.

The village last month removed about 540 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the public works grounds at a cost of $47,543, officials told the Village Board last week. Workers excavating for the expansion of the public works garage uncovered dirt that smelled of diesel fuel, said John Turner, public works director. After notifying the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Turner hired Mankoff Industries of Libertyville to clean up the toxic waste. The site was cleaned and the soil disposed of by July 6. Trustees approved an amendment to the 2000-2001 budget to cover the cleanup expense.

A federal Superfund official said late Monday that Southeast Side residents are fortunate that their environmental contamination levels are not severe enough to require emergency action. "The federal government is putting its money in areas with contamination that is more severe than contamination here," said William Constantelos, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest regional Superfund director. Superfund was set up by Congress to finance the clean-up of hazardous-waste sites.

As an environmentalist, I am concerned and upset by the latest tactic being used by the fur industry. The furriers and ranchers are telling the public that wearing fur is good for the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that the production of a ranch-raised fur coat creates more than twice the toxic waste and uses three times the energy that production of a fake fur uses. Several independent studies, including one sponsored by the U.S. government, confirm these facts.

Sex ed for kids It's a controversial idea in a land known for prudishness about sex -- teaching kids as young as 5 about the birds and bees. But with one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe, the British government is bringing sex education to all schools in England -- including kindergartens. Scorpions disbanded South Africa's elite crime-busters known as the Scorpions have lost their sting. The National Assembly approved legislation Thursday to disband the investigating unit.

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched its Superfund program on Dec. 11, 1980, amid a growing national fear of chemical hazards, it promised to protect public health and the environment from toxic waste. Now the $15.2 billion program is 10 years old, and it has completely cleaned up only 63 toxic waste sites. There are 1,187 more names on its "national priorities" list of cleanup sites, and final cost estimates range from $32 billion to $80 billion. Its critics say Superfund is bogged down in a bureaucratic swamp.

Bulldozers clearing the rubble of the Lebanese civil war have discovered a new enemy lurking in the mountains, beneath the shattered outskirts of city suburbs and along the once beautiful coastline that used to be the marvel of the Middle East: toxic waste. Construction teams needed for rebuilding Beirut have been diverted to search for thousands more barrels of the deadly waste which was illegally imported into the country by warring militias that earned a handsome profit for turning Lebanon into a chemical dump.